Lagos steps up safety awareness with posters

Lagos State government yesterday launched safety signs and posters, charging workers to ensure strict enforcement of regulations in their offices.

At a ceremony attended by top officials including the Head of Service, Mr Adesegun Ogunlewe; Commissioner for Special Duties, Dr. Wale Ahmed; Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Special Duties, Dr Aderemi Desalu, and the Director-General, Lagos State Safety Commission, Mrs Dominga Odebunmi, among others. The government said the initiative was another sign of its commitment to safety.

Unveiling the signages, Ahmed said: “There is need to address our collective attitude to safety. This is what I believe the commission set out to address. With time, this bad attitude will stop and people will begin to see the values of safety and willingly comply.”

He observed that there are so many safety breaches even within the government secretariat. He challenged safety champions already nominated and trained to be alive to their responsibilities by ensuring that safety messages depicted by the signs are strictly adhered to in their various Ministries, Departments and Agencies, (MDAs).

He disclosed that the flag-off of the signages at the secretariat is to send the signal that government is determined to ensure total compliance to globally accepted safety standards all over the state.

Ogunlewe said the introduction would further spread the safety campaign, saying the state was the first to create the safety commission.

Besides describing it as part of present administration’s commitment to preserving lives, Ogunlewe said government decided to look inwards with a view to internalising and adopting the best safety practices in all its ministries and departments.

Ogunlewe, who praised the Odebunmi-led team for good campaigns, pledged the total commitment of the state’s workforce to the safety campaigns.

“These signs will be mounted in conspicuous places in all our various offices, and everything will be done to ensure that every worker in the secretariat becomes a safety vanguard,” he said.

Among other various signs unveiled by the commission are; the emergency exits, fire alerts and exits, first aiders, assembly point, disabled persons exits, as well as the red, blue, green and yellow signs.